It's White to play and mate in 2.

4 comments:

NxD6 discovering check from the queenThe knight is guarded, the queen cannot be taken and the king has no moves as the knight on D6 now guards the rook on F5. This leaves a block by either the bishop or the rook on D4 as the only legal movesIf the bishop blocks then NF4 is mate as the rook no longer covers F4 and the checking knight also covers the D% square just vacated by the bishop..If the rook blocks then either NF4 or ND4 is mate as the Rook is pinned to the king by the queen on D3 and so cannot take the knight that delivers mate.QED

Doh, That will teach me to check solutions on a board rather than trust my head becauseThe Knight on f4 blocks the line of the bishop leaving the knight on d6 to be taken by the king so no mate.

However I think I have it this time QC5 seems to lose all sorts of stuff but if the rook takes on C5 then ND4 is mate. . If d6xC5 then R d5 is mate. If the king takes the rook on f5 then QxD5 is mate again.

Checked it on my board this time.

Now I must stop all these puzzles you are giving me a headache!

The first one is a real stalemate nightmare which I cannot get anywhere near.

For the stalemate one, you play e3 followed by c3 but leave the d pawn on d2. The crucial thing is that the black rook will only have one check. The white king manoeuvres from b3-a2-b1-c2-d3-e2-f1-g2-f3 after which the black rook must capture on g3, opening up the third rank for the white rook. Then the white king heads back from f3-e2-d1-c2-b3-a2. Then after ... Ra3+ white plays Rxa3 mate. For the Christmas tree puzzle Qc5 is correct, by the way.